History ExecutiveMeddling / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/HighGuardianSpice'' was initially pitched and greenlit as an {{animesque}} series for children and families. Partway during production, Website/{{Crunchyroll}} mandated the inclusion of [[RuderAndCruder profanity]], [[HotterAndSexier sexual content]], and [[BloodierAndGorier graphic violence]] so they could advertise it towards the streaming service's usual teen and young adult audience. However, the show's staff wasn't given the time or budget to go back and retool the show with this change in mind, resulting in the final product's infamously [[UncertainAudience conflicted tone]], essentially being a kids' cartoon with some extremely forced "adult" moments.

* WordOfGod says executive meddling is why ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo''[='s=] animated series never aired on TV. Ryan Sohmer had signed a deal with Creator/{{Teletoon}} to acquire funding for 13 episodes of ''Least I Could Do'', when suddenly notes from the higher-ups started coming in. Notes that said the show needed to "feel more Canadian," that the setting should be specifically in Toronto, that Issa should be an Inuit, that Mick should wear a Toronto Maple Leafs shirt and that Rayne and Noel should go out fishing instead of on walks. Needless to say, Sohmer kindly told them where to stick it and backed out of the deal, funding the series through Website/{{Kickstarter}} instead.

* ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' almost never happened largely because of Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s unwillingness to license the series. Nintendo finally agreed but not before asking for hefty royalties in the process. Despite the show being a smash hit and many celebrities (whose kids loved the show) wanting a guest appearance, Nintendo balked after production for its lone season ended. This didn't stop Nintendo from licensing two spinoffs which aired on Creator/{{NBC}} Saturday mornings, ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' and ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld''. While a televised ''Mario'' cartoon hasn't aired since, Nintendo did sign off on a 2022 movie from Creator/IlluminationEntertainment.

** The ''BTAS'' episode "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE12OverTheEdge Over the Edge]]" was subject to bits of Executive Meddling. [[spoiler:Originally, when Batgirl/Barbara was to fall to her death while hitting her father's police car on the way down, the camera angle stayed outside of the car, looking head-on at Gordon and Bullock as Barbara hits the hood. The network censors objected to the blatant on-screen violence and flagged the shot. The writers at WB Animation then set the shot of Barbara landing on the hood from ''inside'' the police car, using the conventional "back seat" shot seen in so many movies. This is a much more startling and frightening shot, as the camera angle is so common and generic that the violence is ten times more unexpected. However, the censors, in a remarkable show of GenreBlindness, only paid attention to the fact that Barbara's landing was technically further away from the camera and signed off on the more vicious shot.]] An interview with Dini shows him saying something to the effect of "If the network wanted us to change a scene because it was too violent or scary, our policy was to follow their words to the letter, but at the same time make it much scarier," noting that they could get away with some seriously twisted things if they followed the words to the letter.

* On ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'', Rudy was originally eight years old, and was that age for the first two shorts on ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons''. When ''Oh Yeah! Cartoons'' was picked up for a second season, Nickelodeon became interested in spinning off the shorts into its own TV series. For unknown reasons, they requested that Rudy had to be aged up to ten years old for the series. For the remainder of the shorts before the show premiered, Rudy was aged up by two years (and re-designed) and Penny was added as a new main character (her addition hasn't been confirmed as executive meddling, but she may have been added into the second season of ''Oh Yeah! Cartoons'' [[TheSmurfettePrinciple because there weren't any female characters in the shorts.]])

* Lincoln and his family in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' were originally conceived as being a family of [[ExplosiveBreeder rabbits]] with Warren (who would become Lincoln) being the only male with twenty-five sisters; in fact Lincoln's toy rabbit Bun-Bun is based off of Warren's concept art. An executive named Jenna Boyd advised Creator/ChrisSavino to make them human. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Savino said that was some of the best advice he had received in his career.]]

** The episode "Serious Business" originally began with the characters standing outside the bathroom desperate to use it and complaining about how long it was taking. This went against Cartoon Network's standards, so they asked them to change the scene to be funnier. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFar-AX3F4 This was the result.]]

** In February 2018, Megan Fahlenbock's contract was terminated by "the network", meaning either Creator/{{Teletoon}} or Creator/CartoonNetwork. Because of this, she didn't reprise her role as Gwen for the second spin-off ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama''. [[spoiler:However, she does voice a grown-up Gwen at the end of the episode "Tiger Fail", suggesting she was not permanently fired from the role as some feared.]] This seems to have been the case with several other voice actors as well, judging from how [[TheOtherDarrin many characters got new voice actors]]. For instance, Brian Froud, the voice of Harold, has confirmed that he wanted to reprise the character for ''[=DramaRama=]'' but was turned down by Creator/FreshTV for unknown reasons.

** One of the main criticisms of the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', was that the writers seemed to pay no attention to the character development of the previous show, with many of the characters suffering drastic shifts in personality and taking actions which were entirely inconsistent with their portrayal in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. It was later revealed that this was because the writers were given only rough outlines of the plot and characters and explicitly ordered not to actually go back and watch the show they were making a sequel to, so that the new show wouldn't be "too continuity heavy." [[ContinuityLockout It didn't work.]]

** Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Sherland were originally and always planned to be a gay couple, being [[HideYourGays excessively sequestered]] by S&P, which Hirsch remained angry about until basically forcing it into the GrandFinale when Disney could no longer do anything to him or the show if he forced the issue.

** More depressingly, Saturn Girl's season-long ConvenientComa and the near-disappearance of Phantom Girl seem to be the results of maximizing the UsefulNotes/{{ratings}} for the target 8-to-11-year-old male {{Demographic|s}}.

** ExecutiveMeddling is the reason the Daffy/Speedy series of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts (the most despised ''Looney Tunes'' shorts ever) exists. In 1964, WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck and WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales were the three most popular characters in the ''Looney Tunes'' series. Television companies, thus, demanded more cartoons featuring Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales (who, at this point, had only starred in about 20 cartoons). Unfortunately, since the newly-reopened Warner Brothers Animation Studio had a very limited budget (due in no small part to the UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem), they had no choice but to pair the two characters together rather than give them separate cartoons. And thus we got "classics" like ''Well-Worn Daffy'', ''Skyscraper Caper'', and ''Speedy Ghost To Town''.

* The infamous ending of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "Mime for a Change" is due to executive meddling. It was originally meant to conclude on a straightforward note with Rainbow the Clown being forgiven for his actions as Mr. Mime, but executives felt like this made him a KarmaHoudini and insisted the girls punish him for his crimes like any other villain on the show.

** Two episodes of Season 2, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", were {{banned| episode}} from premiering on Creator/AdultSwim. Both episodes were centered around Creator/{{BET}} and portrayed them as being socially irresponsible, and exploiting black stereotypes for profit. Despite denial by Adult Swim, many believe that BET threatened Creator/{{Sony}} and AS to pull the episodes with legal actions. Creator/{{Viacom}} (parent company) was confirmed to threaten legal action against Adult Swim. Thankfully, both episodes were featured on the Season 2 DVD, and these two episodes eventually premiered on [adult swim] on May 29, 2020 (while Canadian cartoon channel, Teletoon, merely aired the episodes with a warning that stated that the jokes about BET are not the views and opinions of anyone who works at Teletoon, making one wonder [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot why Cartoon Network's Adult Swim couldn't have done the same thing]]).

** Two episodes of Season 2, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", were {{banned| episode}} from premiering on Creator/AdultSwim. Both episodes were centered around Creator/{{BET}} and portrayed them as being socially irresponsible, and exploiting black stereotypes for profit. Despite denial by Adult Swim, many believe that BET threatened Creator/{{Sony}} and AS to pull the episodes with legal actions. Creator/{{Viacom}} (parent company) was confirmed to threaten legal action against Adult Swim. Thankfully, both episodes were featured on the Season 2 DVD.

* Happens InUniverse in the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "The Duck Knight Returns!". Scrooge (who hasn't set foot in a cinema since 1938) ultimately has three simple demands for the director in charge of the ''Darkwing Duck'' reboot film: the movie should be in color, the villain should have a mustache to twirl...[[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and Dewey is in charge of filming the final scenes]]. It's only the last one that really causes any trouble (the director made the rest of the film an exercise in TrueArtIsAngsty, while Dewey's scenes involve musical numbers and a borderline RandomEventsPlot), and the movie would have likely been a disaster if it hadn't been canceled.

* TheStinger sequences for ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' were sacrificed via CreditsPushback. As seen with ''Chowder'', it's a wonder ''anybody'' on Cartoon Network even bothers with stingers anymore (though ever since the new original programming came along, like ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' and ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', they don't have any stingers).

* Originally, the [[WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor Kids Next Door]] were to use high tech equipment to fight adult tyranny. The folks at Creator/CartoonNetwork, however, asked this to be changed since ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' had already done this. This resulted in [[BambooTechnology 2x4 technology]], which Mr. Warburton has called one of the coolest things about the show. The show as a whole came into existence due to executives becoming interested in some of the side characters in "Kenny and the Chimp" and pushing Warburton into creating a second pilot starring these characters. These characters being what would become Sector V of the Kids Next Door.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' creator Alex Hirsch had a phenomenally difficult time working with The Disney Channel's executives. Years after the show ended, Hirsch released [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/1537314312926003201?s=20&t=hx9Upw0MJd3SPNF6YsPbrA a reading]] of some of the inane things Disney's standards & practices went up into arms about and Alex's [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan and sometimes exasperated responses]]. One notable one was Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Sherland, who were originally and always planned to be a gay couple, being [[HideYourGays excessively sequestered]] by S&P, which Hirsch remained angry about until basically forcing it into the GrandFinale when Disney could no longer do anything to him or the show if he forced the issue. The show's excessive ScheduleSlip was also cited by Hirsch as being some kind of power play by Disney to keep the show on the air longer since it was one of their most popular - and thus most lucrative - shows airing at the time as they tried to convince him to keep the show going when he was perfectly content with ending it at 40 episodes and eventually he signed a deal with Netflix in 2018 to make his next show but also help executive produce, write, and voice work for his friend and former Gravity Falls writer Shion Takeuchi's ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob2021''.

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': During development of its first season, the crew was worried about overtly tackling the subject of divorce, fearing that the network would reject the idea as being too heavy for the target audience. After the first pitch, Cartoon Network not only encouraged them to directly say that Tulip's parents are divorced, but also supported them exploring it in-depth. Ironically, the show would end up being cancelled after its fourth season precisely because executives were growing increasingly upset that later seasons were tackling even heavier subject matter.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' was originally going to have the main duo of Mordecai and Rigby be zookeepers at a PeopleZoo, rather than groundskeepers at a park. J.G. Quintel thanked the executive that hated that concept for talking him out of it during a San Diego Comic-Con panel, admitting that it was a horrible idea in retrospect.

** Creators Michael [=DiMartino=] and Bryan Konietzko have implied executive meddling as the reason for their inability to resolve the Ursa subplot on the series proper. Apparently, they had plans to give many things much more closure, but executives, along with time constraints, forced them to the end the series the way it did. By their own choice, they ended up turning down a proposal to have the Ursa subplot resolved in a brief throwaway scene of her and Zuko reuniting at the end, as that would be a textbook example of a WriterCopOut, wrapping something up in a quick, unsatisfying way. Thankfully, the sequel comics ''[[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise The Promise]]'' and ''[[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch The Search]]'' eventually resolve this subplot.

* Somebody at Nickelodeon seriously has it out for ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
** First of all the creators were initially told that the series would just be one mini-series measuring at about 12 episodes. Then it was renewed for a second season, with it up in the air whether ''that'' would be the final season or not. This mean that the writers had to resolve every plot thread in those seasons by the end, leading to pacing problems. It wasn't until seasons three and four were renewed at the same time that they were actually able to plan ahead, and pacing and structure improved drastically as a result.
** Nick also fell into the old habit of flipping the show around scheduling-wise, so no one could get a solid idea of when it would be on.
** The writers also struggled to have Korra be a girl, as Nick was insistent that [[GirlShowGhetto boys wouldn't watch a show with a female main character]]. It took test audiences made up of boys to prove that this was a baseless assumption.
** Book 3 avoided any problems with executives but Book 4 suddenly got hit hard again. The budget was slashed viciously meaning the season didn't have nearly as many episodes as the writers wanted/needed. They were bullied into having a pointless ClipShow episode; Nick actually threatened to fire some of the studio staff if one wasn't made. And just to top it off, Book 4, which resolved the show's MythArc, [[ConclusionInAnotherMedium was yanked off television]]. Instead Nick relegated it to their online programming. This actually turned out for the best, as the writers were now free of FCC regulations. Books 3 and 4 would feature a graphic on-screen death, family-unfriendly topics such as mass violence and political repression, capped off by an onscreen ''same-sex couple''.

* Until the late 2000s, starting with ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', policy was that Wonder Woman and her supporting cast were only allowed to appear in non-comics media if she's one of the main characters of the given show or film.

* Until the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' and the first season of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', policy was that Wonder Woman and related characters were only allowed to appear if she's one of the main characters. Since then, this has changed as she was a guest star in those series, appeared in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanApocalypse'' and Donna Troy appeared in ''WesternAnimation/SuperBestFriendsForever''.

** In-universe, the director sometimes calls the characters when the scene is getting too [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence violent]] or risqué to let them know that he wants them to change that part of the episode to avoid angering MoralGuardians.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''